PREFACE.

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THE BEST MODE OF USING THE BOOK.

It is not in the spirit of dictation, but with the utmost deference, that the Compiler would venture to offer the following suggestions to those of his brethren who may be disposed to introduce his volume into their Churches. 1. Let the tunes which are well known, and of these there is a considerable number, first be selected and adhered to. By this means deeply rooted pre­dilections would not receive too vehement a shock, a taste for a pure style of psalmody would be formed, and this would pave the way for the use of all the rest. 2. As the service of the domestic altar, to be complete, should have the family Hymn, as well as the family lesson and the family prayer, the heads of families may be encouraged to use at morning and evening prayer, during the week, the Hymns and Tunes which are appointed in the Tabular Index for the following Sunday. The children and servants of the household will thus become familiarized to good Psalm- tunes, and be qualified to sing them with precision, earnestness, and spirit. Domestic psalmody will ever be found to be the best preparation for congregational psalmody. 3. The same plan may be adopted in the national schools. The tunes which are appointed for the ensuing Sabbath can be used at the opening and close of the school each day: and to this may be superadded a practice of the whole school for one hour at least every week, when the melodies can be taught by the teacher from the black board. The true syllabic psalm- tune is the only one children can sing with correctness, and they catch it with remarkable facility. 4. If practicable, let the con­gregation be invited and urged to assemble every week for practice. This method is now extensively adopted by many congregations, both in and out of the Church, and with the happiest effects. These recommendations, system­atically and energetically carried out, would soon, the Compiler believes, raise the psalmody of our Church to the high and palmy condition of its most flourishing period.

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I now commit the book to the blessing of God and the kind consideration of the Church, and I commit it in the degree that it is likely to subserve the glory of the one and the benefit of the other. I deeply lament the prostrate condition of our psalmody. In some of our Churches the chant or tune is never heard; in others it is confined to the clerk or choir; from others Metrical Hymns are violently ejected; whilst, again, in others where they are welcomed as an important auxiliary to congregational praise, they are too often allied to a class of melodies which never can permanently carry the sympathies of the people, or effectually draw out the choral powers of a congregation. This comparative neglect of such an important arm of divine service is a source of unspeakable weakness to the Church amongst the masses. tune," well and adequately rendered, is relished by the educated as well as " The common the uneducated ear: but to the poor it is essential, and no form of worship will ever be attractive without it. a channel like this within the Church, they will wander in search for it without. If they find no vent for their feelings in Everywhere we hear the complaint that the poor do not appear in any large number at our Churches, and especially in our large towns. for this be found in the torpor which too often pervades her services? The rich Cannot one reason do not sing, the poor dare not, whilst those who resolutely make the effort soon find their voices grow tremulous from being solitary in the work of praise. The plain, practical truth is, the poor have neither the time, ability, nor inclin­ation to examine the numerous and elaborate treatises which have been written